Dental robot flinches just like a real patient

She blinks and flinches just like a real patient at the mercy of the dentist's drill.

And roboticists at Japan's Showa University say they have perfected their life-like dental training robot to such an degree they now feel she is ready to be let loose on her first dental students.

Revealed at a press conference in Japan yesterday "Showa Hanako 2" is a medical automaton capable of sneezing, head shaking, coughing, mimicking gagging, and will even close her mouth like a real patient when feeling that telltale jaw ache associated with the dentist reaching inside your mouth. With voice recognition technology the trainee dentist can even carry out a rudimentary conversation with the robot.

First developed by the team at Showa 10 years ago this first commercial model not only has more lifelike movements but her skin is quite possibly one of the more convincing aspects of her appearance, or of any robot to date. The creators enlisted the skills of Japan's top sex doll maker Orient Industry in the making of Showa Hanako's skin, tongue and mouth.

But Hanako's virtues are not only skin-deep. Once a check-up is complete the robot can store and analyse each student's performance giving feedback to any nervous novice through a computer link. Hanako will go on sale first in Japan later this year for an undisclosed sum.